Denise Davis describes herself as "a numbers nerd," who fell in love with banking after an internship at PNC Bank while attending the University of Pittsburgh.
After a dozen years with the bank, Davis is now a managing director and senior relationship manager within PNC Bank's energy group, which ranks among the top revenue-generating businesses for the bank with more than $3 billion of deployed capital and a portfolio of dozens of clients.
Since 2020, revenue in her portfolio has jumped 140% and Davis now delivers almost a third of the energy group's total revenue.
"Banking is multifaceted," said Davis, who has focused on finding ways to create a pipeline of young talent. "When you're starting out your career, you're looking for opportunities to grow and be challenged. Having an organization with a great company culture makes you love it even more."
Davis is a founding member of the bank's energy group where she says by "lucky circumstance," she was tapped to join the team but had to move to Houston, from Pittsburgh.
"It was a little scary as a young person who grew up on the East Coast, just picking up your life and going somewhere completely new," she said. "Accepting that challenge was so rewarding and a lot of my opportunities and career acceleration came from raising my hand and being willing to go to be part of something that was new and a little bit entrepreneurial, growing something from scratch."
In a short time, Davis has played a key role in propelling the department to one of the top five banks in the energy space. She generated 14 new client relationships in the last three years and works closely with CFOs, treasurers and finance teams to provide solutions to such nagging problems as capital raising, structuring, treasury planning and transaction financing.
Davis was able to win over the founder and management of a large, public company that had initially intended on engaging a money-center bank to secure capital financing.
Her job involves skills to navigate various departments within the bank including internal credit, underwriting, executive leadership and operational teams.
Davis said she tries to create a customized approach to the banking needs of her clients that differs from the generic approaches of legacy sponsor relationship banks.
"We want to form the right relationships with the right clients," Davis said. "When we go and form a new relationship, we've done our homework and really taken the time to understand what drives their business, what are their priorities and understand the competitive landscape, and then presenting the best version of PNC that's also resonating with what they're looking for."
